The Wisdom of Winning Souls

‘The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise. ’ — xi. 30.

|0 “win souls seems to be the chief fruit which the trees of righteousness bear in time. It is sweet and precious. It is pleasing to God, and profitable to men. It is an everlasting memorial. In monuments of marble we commemorate for a few years the deeds of the great; but a soul won through your means will itself be a monument of the fact for ever. It is thus that “the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance” (Ps. cxii 6). The righteous, we learn in a previous verse, “shall flourish as a branch;” this is the secret of his fruitfulness. “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me” (John xv. 4). Christ is the source of a Christian’s fruitfulness. From Him it comes and to Him it returns. This branch bears fruit after its kind. It is the life work of the won, to win others.

A soul won is a bright conception, but it suggests inevitably its dread counterpart, a soul lost. From the night’s darkness the daylight springs; there must be a sense of loss ere there can be a real effort to save. We must begin at the beginning. Our defect lies at the root. If we knew the ailment, the cure is at hand. Food is abundant; it is hunger that is rare. We seem to act as if men were safe in a competent hereditary portion, and might or might not lay themselves out for new acquisitions. The true state of the case is, all is lost already, and the soul that is not won shall perish. To realize this would embody theory in action, and change the face of the world. We would all labour more to win souls if we really believed them lost. “Fools” are “slow of heart to believe;” and therefore they are slack of hand to work Faith knows the death by sin, and the life through

Jesus; therefore the faithful work, and the workers win souls, — their own first, and then their neighbour’s.

The charity that wins a soul begins at home; and if it do not begin there it will never begin. The order of nature in this work is, “Save yourselves and them- that hear you.” But though this charity begins at home, it does not end there. From its centre outward, and onward all around, like the ripple on the surface of the lake, compassion for the lost will run, nor stop until it touch the shore of time. On this errand Christ came into the world, and Christians follow the footsteps of the Lord. He recognised the world lost, and therefore He came a Saviour. Those who partake of His spirit put their hand to His work.

To win an immortal from sin and wrath to hope and holiness — this is honourable work, and difficult. It is work for wise men, and we lack wisdom. On this point there is a special promise from God. Those who need wisdom, and desire to use it in thi.s work, will get it for the asking. The wisdom needed is very different from the wisdom of men. It is very closely allied to the simplicity of a little child. Much of it lies in plainness and promptness. Those who try to win souls must not muffle up their meaning: both by their lips and their life they must let it be seen that their aim is not to make the good better, but to save the lost. Delays also are dangerous, as well as ambiguities. Get the word of life dropt on the conscience of the healthy, lest he be sick before another opportunity occur. Tell the whole truth to the sick to-day, lest he be dead before you return. None who try to win deal slackly, and none who deal slackly win, whether it be a fortune, or a race, or a battle; those should throw their whole might into the conflict, who wrestle with a more powerful adversary, and for a greater prize.